John M. Greene Award

Professor of Education and Child Study, 1997–2021
Dean of the College and Vice President for Campus Life, 2017–21

Scholar and professor, dean of the college and vice president for campus life—over the past four decades, you have shared your intellectual exuberance, kind heart, and dedication to excellence with the Smith community in profound ways. Smith, you have said, has been your “life and home for so many years.” You first arrived here as an undergraduate Italian literature major, and continued on as a graduate student in the education and child study program. Even after you enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to pursue your doctoral degree in education, you could feel Smith pulling you back. Degree in hand, you eventually returned to this remarkable college as a new faculty member in the education and child study department. This served as the beginning of a teaching career that would span some 25 years. For you, the craft of teaching is multidimensional. Your scholarship has focused not only on how children learn, but also on how teachers develop. You have been a fierce advocate for new and innovative approaches to teaching, believing deeply in the power of children to shape their own education. In particular, you have found inspiration in the Reggio Emilia model of teaching and learning. This educational philosophy, which has its roots in the Italian community of the same name, empowers children to guide their own educational experience, making them active participants in their own learning. As you have noted, the approach works because it focuses on “what children can do, rather than what they cannot do.” You demonstrated your love of Smith once again when you joined the college’s administration in 2017 as dean of the college and vice president for campus life. In that role, you deepened your already strong connection to students by making critical investments in student mental health as well as equity and inclusion. We are a stronger community and a more welcoming college because of your smart, strategic thinking and compassionate leadership. At the heart of everything you have done for Smith is your unwavering belief in our mission and its impact on the world beyond the Grecourt Gates. As both an educator and administrator, you were inspired every day by what you called students’ “intellectual energy and curiosity and the many ways in which they put their knowledge to good use in the world.” For your remarkable service, dedication to teaching, and commitment to transforming students’ lives, Smith College is proud to honor you with the John M. Greene Award.

Alison Overseth ’80
Chair, Board of Trustees
February 24, 2023